FUTURE BABIES

F U T U R E   B A B I E S

This week’s readings got me thinking about how the Internet generation's brains have been molded by technology, and what the future of humanity will be like. And when I say “the future of humanity” I am referring to the scores of toddlers across the world that are being raised by tablet computers, social media, and Internet articles.

The problem with being raised by computers is twofold – the first problem with it is minor, and somewhat unintuitive. I believe that raising our children with computers will make them worse at using technology, not better. The second and more dangerous problem is that children who are raised from infancy by computers and the Internet may never develop critical thinking skills at any point in their lives.

1. When we see a 3-year-old child playing on a tablet computer, our knee-jerk reaction is to assume that she will grow up being comfortable around computers and use them effectively. This is not a baseless assumption, as it is easy to argue that the Millennial generation is more comfortable around technology than their parents. However, there is no guarantee that “comfort” with technology amounts to “skill” with technology.

I argue that the computer scientists who built the Internet, although they did not grow up using technology that did not exist yet, have far superior programming skills than I do. Furthermore, I’m sure their knowledge of the inner workings of computer hardware surpass my own. Just because I grew up using the Internet and computing technology, that does not give me some distinct advantage over them just because they are older. In fact, I have been coddled throughout my lifetime by Internet browsers that display information in a pleasing way – and full-blown operating systems that make using computers easier. I believe that, as interfaces become more intuitive, future generations will know less about the “guts” of computers and understand them only superficially for most of their lives.

2. The more worrisome effect that Internet technologies will have on the babies of the future is the deterioration of critical thinking and focusing skills. If Professor Gary Small is correct in saying that “the current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate, but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains,” what effect will it have on developing minds? This technology is so new that we have never seen the results of raising children this way before, and it has this blogger concerned.

Since I am a future game developer, please don't flood this post with comments about how I am arguing against children playing iPad games – I’m not. That’s not the technology I’m talking about, and I believe that games targeted towards young audiences are probably the only appropriate content for young users. Really, I am concerned by the notion of toddlers growing up using the Internet and other technologies where in-text linking abounds, and the ways that will shape their thinking skills. I predict a large number of “false positive” autism cases, where children show all of the symptoms of autism even though they do not have the condition in their genes, but rather learned it from being shaped by technology. Or perhaps the future will be filled with young, angry trolls who never learned to critically analyze information and instead can be whipped into a frenzy with the slightest push.

As much as I would love to end this blog post with some kind of “call-to-action” to stop this trend, I don’t have any ideas on what to do. I’m not going to stop using the Internet, as much as it changes my neural pathways and redefines how I think. I’m addicted, and the work I do (as well as the field I want to be in) requires that I latch onto the Internet and never let go. I will, however, attempt to introspectively analyze my own thinking habits and reading patterns. If that means actively ignoring website advertisements and in-text links, I think it is worth the effort.